Daedalus jerked his head up when someone spoke, feeling a rush of mistrust--black fuku, long hair, holes in his forehead and chest--this was one of the Negaverse Senshi that Murikabushi had warned him about. The dangerous ones, the ones allied with the people that had built this place and intended to turn innocent civilians into monsters.
But there was something eerily familiar about him.
And when Daedalus's eyes locked on his face, he knew.
His knees nearly buckled--he had to grip the doorframe to stay upright, and his chest ached as if he'd been stabbed. It was a wound torn open, one that for him was only three years old even if the universe at large considered it ancient history.
The longing was like a tidal wave. Apropos, he supposed. What else was he supposed to feel.
"....Merak?"
His voice cracked, raw from coughing and from pain, and he felt a stinging in his eyes.
No, this wasn't right, this wasn't fair--Merak couldn't be one of theirs. They couldn't have gotten him.
Sig took a few steps towards the bank when he thought he spotted gold and white, but mentally cursed when the figure was not the person he was looking for. Was she still in the building? The building that was on fire? He was starting to become more and more frantic. Should he run into the building to look for her? What if she was behind the building or trapped or... or... or...
His worries were cut off when he was suddenly surrounded by a wall of water, hot water at that! Before he could do anything it came crashing down on him, driving him to the ground, scalding him to add insult to injury. Sig coughed and choked, trying to struggle free from the hot water. Even when he was free of the warm deluge he gasped and coughed, feeling like a drowned puppy. "Bloody hell," He spat out as he tried to spot the culprit, eyes locking on a long haired fellow... a corrupt from his understanding of things. "What the hell man!" Why did he always seem to get tangled up with corrupts!?!?!?
He didn't have time to deal with this guy! The bank was burning and Antares was no where to be seen!!!!
[Editing post some cuz missed the 'fire' post >.<']
Kolina
((Direct interaction with Heliodor... sort of >.<' ))
Sunshine Alouette
((As far as I know your guys are still in area hence the quote ^.^ still welcome to thrash the poor page))
While Tortuga waited to see if the closest senshi needed any assistance they were joined by a Knight who seemed more then ready to rumble. "Roger that, thanks. First, do you need any first aid? Second, looks like you came from inside the building... which team were you with?" He hadn't been with the info gathering team since that was Tortuga's team. That meant he was likely in the destruction team, Antares' team. "I don't suppose you saw an angry blonde in scorpion jewelry did you? She is part of my fighting team and I promised I would keep an eye on her." It wasn't quite true, he did promise to watch out for her but she wasn't part of his 'team', just part of his family. So he really needed to make sure she, and her boyfriend, were ok.
"Or were you with the tech team?" If he had been then even better, maybe the knight knew where Sig was. That poor page really had signed up for the wrong operation. Hell, Tortuga felt like he signed up for the wrong operation and he was a seasoned knight! A glance over at the bank showed that it was rapidly being engulfed in flames.
"We should move from here. Either of you two know where we are meant to meet up? I was able to snag some papers that really should be handed over?"
[Editing post some cuz missed the 'fire' post >.<']
SSBrosB
Daekie
Fiction1119
Original Lunatic
Offline
Orangeish Sherbert
Lonely
Offline
Posted: Tue May 23, 2023 6:02 pm
Langite, Negaverse Senshi of Longing Location: D2, eyeing D3. Action: Nah, He good
Whatever Langite had expected, this wasn’t it and he raised a brow, his face growing impassive for a moment as he briefly considered just reaching for the horns and wondering if he could simply remove them from the Senshi’s skull…but perhaps he wouldn’t have the strength required for that…someone might though and…
Well…then again. Maybe not. It seemed that his magic had turned the poor thing into an idiot. Maybe…there would be some other trophy to get tonight that didn’t involve strange questions that made absolutely no sense.
Perhaps having these horns mounted on his wall would cause him to have strange confusion…it was better to just.
Not.
“Right.” He turned on his heel and glanced around hoping that there was someone more…sane that he could waste his time on.
It was growing uncomfortably warm where he stood, which...was to be expected as the bank blazed on, though when he set his eyes adrift, he saw a group of three.
Daedalus could feel the heat rising from behind him. He needed to get away from the bank, before it properly came down--and moreover, Merak was turning away from him.
He didn't remember. Couldn't possibly. He'd been reincarnated, and--of course this probably made no sense to him, but--having found Merak again, Daedalus couldn't just let him walk away. So he staggered forward, reaching out to try and grab his sleeve.
"Wait, please." There was a definite air of desperation in his voice. "Do you really not recognize me? At all?"
It was a stupid question. The absolute lack of reaction made that clear as day. But Daedalus couldn't help himself. Not when Merak was right here, in front of him.
Well. It seems someone wanted to get bit. Fang snarled at her, dodging to the side of the spear and not quite making it—the spear shredded his jacket open and cut a streak of, indeed, red blood. He hissed, ignoring the wound to lunge forward, up close, mouth wide and hands extended.
Just like earlier.
Only this time, the intent to kill thrummed through his whole body.
Monoceros hadn't felt up to doing much, magical girl business wise, lately. But tonight...
Well, it certainly was a great night to pick to try and find himself again. Try to start figuring out who he was in the fuku. He struggled so much with it in his day-to-day, he thought it would be easier here.
Not so much.
He ran onto the scene from the south, passing some kind of pond, and almost immediately saw someone he recognized, thank God.
"Muri!" he called out. "Got the distress signal from our side, what the hap is ******** he should have asked the other two White Moon senshi there, but he didn't know their names and they didn't seem like they wanted to beat the s**t out of his friend, so it was probably safe? He hoped?
a-disgruntled-dragon
terebellum
amorremanet
murikabushi
Noir Songbird
izanami
Posted: Tue May 23, 2023 7:02 pm
General-King Faustite Action: Summoning youma in A5 that will distribute throughout the battlefield.
Faustite couldn't have said it any better — Alkmene was spot on for his assessment. It left Faustite curious why it took so long to call in reinforcements, and why Jadarite would let the situation deteriorate to this point before amassing backup. It didn't seem to him like something she would do; he had to imagine the White Moon either blindsided them or found a way to jam calls until recently. They'd developed crippling technologies before, so one answer was just as possible as the next.
Regardless, answers would turn out when they performed an investigation later. He would likely have a hand in it, given that the leads for this op were two of his own.
Heliodor took off like a shot; Faustite frowned as he watched the boy's retreating figure. Pinning him down for a simple conversation had grown so tediously impossible. Even now, Heliodor hardly waited for orders before splitting away and going his own route. Already he was engaging someone in the company of officers familiar and not. Roselite was among them, so if something ill happened, Faustite knew he would hear about it in a timely manner.
He gave Tama a sidelong glance. "Not every burning building's my fault. Now go pull your weight before the youma try to eat you." He shooed away the Mauvian, though he was only slightly serious about it.
He raised his hands outward again, beckoning forth a squadron of youma from the Rift — some mostly human with many arms, others arachnoid in appearance, others closer to plants than animals, but all were capable of deadly force in the right circumstances. The group of ten amassed behind him, and once formed, he directed them toward the battlefield on a whole.
"Kill anyone who isn't 'us'. Or the cute boy in the purple skirts over there." He added, gesturing to Murikabushi.
Quote:
If your character needs a battle or some interaction, feel free to use a youma!
GeneralLarimar, E2 Going through it. Manhandling Kaifeng, about 1.5 seconds from pivoting to stabbing Hati
Every goddamn a*****e in the vicinity had apparently decided it was ******** With Larimar Time, which ze couldn't even refute, because apparently nobody else was taking the initiative and ze was stuck in the middle of a godforsaken gaggle of sailor-suited maniacs.
Fiiiiiine. Greeeeeat. Delightfullllll.
The silence component of Sailor Who ******** Cares' magic was bugging zem, but honestly, ze was so anxious already -- heartrate unknown, probably over 150 and continuing to increase -- the rest settled into place. Who cared if zyr hand was shaking perceptibly on the handle of the rapier or ze kept having to shift zyr feet a little, to rebalance, feeling so unsteady. The air was so humid and muggy and -- didn't matter! Whatever! Ze was not going to freak out just because of some stupid magic that could apparently make zem go basically deaf outside of its included sound effects! The blinding effect of Sailor Maid's magic was wearing off, so Larimar was peachy, basically.
God, this was a lost ******** cause. Whatever. Whatever!! Ze didn't need backup!! (Who knew what Mirabilite and Aschera were doing, but it was apparently sitting around with their thumbs up their asses, as far as Larimar was concerned.) Zyr cheek and nose were going to bruise from being hit with a fan, probably, but that was what masks and excuses were for and also being an antisocial ******** sitting in the tech booth all the time.
"I would slit your ******** throat," ze said, quickly, in a tone that was simultaneously malicious as all get-out and incredibly beleaguered, "but all your little friends would jump me." Could he even hear zem? Could anyone? Could ze even hear zemself! Who cared! That wasn't the point! Ze ripped the rapier out of Saturn p***k's side with a steady enough hand, bringing up one knee into his gut and grabbing for the hair with zyr free hand.
Ideally this would get him on the ******** ground, where ze could actually stop wasting time on him and go stab someone else. Like the Super who'd cast that second piece of magic, and was getting all close and personal. He looked like he was just waiting to be a pincushion --
Chrysocolla didn't make a lot of noise, to her credit, even though she just have been in a reasonable amount of pain; she managed out of the throw as soon as she got her hands on the ground, managing an only slightly-shaky cartwheel, recovering to her feet. Sometimes she really, really hated not having a weapon, but what could she do about that? Not much. All she could do was make sure that she had the physical strength to back what she could manage up, and a weekly schedule that involved a lot of gym time.
"It's been a while," Chrysocolla managed through gritted teeth, and lunged forward again with a snappy kick. Hyperborea had the advantage of armor, yes, but her knees went unprotected, so if Chrysocolla could just get her off-balance she could get her magic ready, and that would make the fight more in her favor. Get the taller woman in a position of weakness and break her ******** face. Or her fingers, even, which was probably easier and also more useful; heels were good for that.
Aurelius0815
Hyperborea
------- BasicSailor Cepheus, A1 Hiding on the roof It was really just getting worse down there, wasn't it? There was blood, now, and the building just looked worse and worse and closer to some kind of awful doom. Hiding up here really did seem like the safest option, thanks!
Sure, there were youma by the lake, but none of them had gotten to her. ...yet. But they'd probably have to climb up the side of the building if they wanted to, and -- wait, no, she'd just managed to completely miss the person on the other side of the roof in her hurry to huddle into herself.
Briartite might have heard a little squeak of distress and worry over the sound of the battlefield, if they'd been paying attention. Cepheus clapped her hands over her mouth, deciding that until he started actually attacking her, her best option was still staying soundly on the roof and Not Getting Into Trouble of her own accord.
The wash of heat and flame was hot on Anakeion's back, and the smoke was close enough to her she could smell it, which were both things she wasn't a super huge fan of?? As such, she took the executive decision of Moving Away From There, scarpering herself into the middle of the road.
Where she was immediately accosted by a youma, because why wouldn't she be, honestly. Sometimes battles had that weird ebb-and-flow to them, where -- didn't matter! Priorities! Get out of your own head, Anakeion, jeez, she wasn't trying to write a New York Times bestselling memoir here -- at least summoning her weapon and going absolutely to ******** town to the spider-like youma who had decided she apparently looked delicious.
More fool it! She'd run out of the tropical fruit-scented bodywash last week, she was back to using the scentless stuff now! Sure, it was durable, but Anakeion was pretty sure she'd kill it!
Eventually.
While she kept it occupied and (with a strange sort of methodness) broke its legs, at least it wasn't going after anyone else, and at least she was getting a workout and her weekly dose of fearing-for-her-life adrenaline! Couldn't miss it! ------- SuperSailor Onnie, E1 Go team go!!
"I'm great," Onnie said to Tortuga, with what was probably way too much zeal for a girl with visible singe marks and a lot of dust on her scarf. Behind her, some rubble shifted and clattered to the ground with a loud noise; this did not appear to affect her demeanor in the slightest. And at Drombeg -- "You have a sword," she enthused, "that is so cool!!" He probably wouldn't let her hold it, she wasn't that caught up in her own world, but she wanted to hold a sword!! It had been a critical aspect of all her twelve-year-old fantasies.
Actually, she had used a greataxe in those, but she didn't think anyone outside of the Negaverse was lugging around a greataxe, and they probably wouldn't let her hold theirs. Shame! Swords were an acceptable, if not ideal, second place.
Oh, yeah, redhead guy had asked a question -- "Didn't see her!" Or if Onnie had seen her, she hadn't remembered, which was basically the same thing as far as she was concerned. "And I don't know anything!" She continued to beam with unreasonable amount of zeal, which did make sense, given her absolutely empty head.
Fiction1119
Tortuga
SSBrosB
Drombeg
Posted: Tue May 23, 2023 8:31 pm
Super Hestia Location: now fully at E2, wasting a perfectly good stealth hit by not being actually stealthy
Catching the edge of Hati's attack, the silence and then the haunted, hunted feeling of pursuit hit Hestia's with a wall of fight or flight. To which, there was only one real choice here. Shifting her one-handed grip on the sledge hammer into both bands, she listened to the General threaten and complain with wide eyes and a soft smile.
"You're correct," she intoned behind zem, bringing the sledgehammer up, "...we would."
Behind her, in a distance not nearly far enough away, more and different chaos suddenly surged. Someone had summoned youma.
amorremanet
kaifeng - you're doing Great
Daekie
larimar - clowns to the left of zem, jokers to the right
"I think they're sad," Hybris announced, opting for a visible-from-a-distance, stage-level expression to match. "Imagine someone walking up to you, giving you a literally thankless job to fight every night, and forcing you to wear white every day." He gave a small shudder even as he took a handful of popcorn.
Nodding at her concern for wraiths, he added, "I hear we have to ask Mirror Daddy to give us another if we break one." Obviously this situation did not merit angering Mirror Daddy. What if he like, grounded them?
The on fire guy at the end of the lake started doing big gestures, and Hybris found himself frantically chewing his popcorn to see who was about to get ********. And then choked as the answer started running right at them.
amorremanet
yum_teaemotion_skull
Seiana_ZI
yum_teaemotion_skull
Posted: Tue May 23, 2023 9:14 pm
DMS SUPER MURIKABUSHI Location: D5. Action: Explaining for Izanami and Monoceros, introducing self to Tere, relief about Boy, trying to organize and look at where they can chip in. Also, mild to moderate emotional dissociation.
Faustite was alive. No mistaking that.
He was alive. And himself. Ostensibly himself, at least. Maybe something had gone wrong there, maybe this was a trick—but a focus on getting his people out and grumbling at Reiki definitely felt like the genuine article. Enough so that Reiki teared up in relief, even as Faustite left to go corral the other Negaverse officers. “Later,” he said, and Reiki could work with “later.” More than fair enough, given all of the mess that seemed to have come for everybody here assembled. Faustite belonged to an organization with structure and a hierarchy, and he had responsibilities to the officers beneath him.
(Reiki sighed in relief over the girls with the phones literally taking the money and running, but they were also out of mind as soon as they were out of sight. Couldn’t get bogged down in worrying about them, not with Everything Else going on in front of him.)
He was moving toward the alien senshi (Terebellum) to introduce himself, when Izanami came up behind them and did it for him. Soon behind her—so soon that Reiki had yet to actually answer Iza’s perfectly reasonable questions—came Monoceros, who fortunately had very much the same questions as Izanami. Made Reiki’s life somewhat easier, he guessed. He just needed……a deep breath to steady himself so he could think.
“Hi, both of you,” he started, his tone the sort of light and forcedly pleasant that came from someone who wasn’t sure if he wanted to dissociate from this situation or not, and if so, by how much. “Ceros, this is Izanami; she’s pretty cool. Iza, this is Monoceros; he’s a sweetheart. I don’t—” He turned to wave ‘hi’ at the alien senshi. “Hi, I’ve never met you, but I’m Murikabushi. I’m sorry about the dirty Chaos aura; I wish I didn’t have it either, but I promise I’m here to help.”
As if this was a perfectly normal thing to say and not at all noteworthy, he turned back to Iza and Ceros. “There were some teenagers, messing around on their phones? She was protecting them when I got here. I, uh.” A shrug. “Literally gave them money to leave. As for what’s happening?”
Feeling the new influx of Chaos auras rushing onto the field, Reiki turned back toward the scene before then right in time to see the flock of youma rising, with Faustite apparently calling them forth. “……Okay, that’s new,” Reiki said, lifting his glasses so he could rub the bridge of his nose. “Of course, I thought the guy summoning them was either dead or fully youma until, like, forty-five seconds ago or something?” Probably a little more than that, but not long enough for Reiki to stop feeling like he wanted to just sit somewhere quietly and cry out the relief.
“And—I don’t? …Know? Everything that’s happening? I think—the bank was apparently Negaverse? Faustite—” Reiki gestured in his direction, “—said it was a loss for them, so? And now there are youma to cover their escape, so……” He shrugged. “I mean, if we don’t hit them, they eat our starseeds—or worse, go after civilians. So……are we senshi or not? Watch each other’s backs while making sure that the youma don’t hurt anybody innocent? Try to get injured people to safety as much as we can? Maybe focus on the injured near the building; they’ll be at risk of smoke inhalation if they don’t get away from there?”
Why was he coming up with directions for Order senshi who, by all rights, should’ve beaten him as bloody as they would’ve done to a Negaverse senshi and dragged him to Cosmos to get either removed from the Court or from this current life in the first place? They didn’t have to listen to him. The green senshi who’d been protecting the girls, she didn’t even know him; she couldn’t trust that he was on the level just because he said that he was.
Whatever, it wasn’t like it mattered. Reiki was just an idiot who’d sold his soul to Mirrorspace for a ******** boy. Even if the others didn’t come with him, he had to throw himself into protecting the people who really deserved it. (Meaning: everyone who wasn’t Reiki.)
Noir Songbird_
hi, Iza, Muri is feeling confused as well
a-disgruntled-dragon_
hi, Tere, Muri is just meeting you but he generally likes alien senshi
DARK MIRROR BASIC LETE Location: B5 Action: Always save the cat boy. (Nobody say anything about how Lete was literally just talking s**t about the concept of “being responsible.”)
One moment, Lete had a mind to ask who had brought Hybris into the Mirror and why they had taught him to call Prince Remarque “Mirror Daddy.” Or maybe Hybris had come up with that on his own? Lete doubted that it had been Tantalus, because frankly, Lete could not imagine Tantalus ever calling Remarque “Mirror Daddy.” Either way, all of the different internal dynamics of the Court were endlessly fascinating to Lete, a messy little gremlin who loved gossip as long as it was about other people.
One moment, Lete had a mind to ask if Hybris did any acting or writing, and what did he think about podcasts. More specifically, what did he think about the idea of a more fictional-ish radio show style podcast inspired by the magical shenanigans in Destiny City.
The next moment, that Negaverse guy who was literally on fire pulled a bunch of youma out of <******** nowhere and set them loose. Because apparently, that was A Thing that was just allowed to happen, now.
Inhaling sharply, Lete stashed the popcorn back in her subspace and threw herself to her feet. “Stay behind me, okay,” she said, moving in front of Hybris. As one of the youma—some big, ugly jerk with ears and wings like a bat, a humanoid torso, no arms, and a long, black snake tail—rushed toward them, part of her wanted to spread her arms and legs like a human door in front of her new bestie. But there wasn’t any need. Probably, it would’ve wasted time. “When he gets close enough, I’ll hit him with my magic. It’ll ******** him up enough that we can try to make a getaway.”
Sadly, there weren’t very many paths that didn’t go by somebody. But at least one clear path seemed apparent—“If we run south around the lake, Murikabushi will probably let us leave. And if he makes an ‘I’m not mad, I’m disappointed’ face, whatever. At least we won’t die.” Seemed like a good bet all around to Lete.
Stay behind me okay was a phrase guaranteed to warm Hybris's heart and earn his useless affection for life. She absolutely did not have to ask twice and he obediently stayed behind her strong! brave! back, slightly scrunched down and peeking out from behind Lete's hair.
Hearing her plans, he didn't have any objections, even if they encountered some stern looks from a disappointed Big Mirror Brother, it'd be better than however the limbless naga kink was looking at them right now. Feeling just a smidge of desire to help the person standing between him and whatever the snake-thing had in mind, Hybris readily agreed and added, "If you need me to, I can look very scary for half a minute."
Well, kind of. There were lots of scary looking people in the area. And he could look like one of them.
amorremanet
emotion_skullgaia_down
lizbot
No Faun
Online
Guine
Crew
Lonely Explorer
Offline
Posted: Wed May 24, 2023 6:16 am
Reims, Page of Ganymede Location: C3, but heading towards D3 as soon as Fang is safe. Action: Attacking Atheneite for attacking Fang.
Reims was grateful that Stirling was willing to let go of her death grip on the other Lysithea page, but gave her a confused look. Why was she talking about Dering twice…? It didn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter if she had a bad memory and couldn’t remember their names in the heat of battle.
Literal heat. The bank was definitely on fire now.
But he glanced over at the pretty blonde -- er... Yvoire... and offered a reassuring smile. The other kid was tiny compared to him, but that was fine. Size didn’t matter in a good fight. Especially not when they had a tiger. Which he gawked at momentarily.
Whether or not it was Metallia nearby, he couldn’t help but notice some woman with a spear attacking a literal dog person (Fang). Or one with very convincing ears and tail.
“Hey! What’s the big idea?” Reims shouted at the woman (Atheneite), although she really couldn’t be much older than them! Certainly not much taller if at all. He knew she was stronger than he was, but it didn’t matter when she was attacking with a weapon and the other -- clearly a Senshi -- was not.
Maybe foolishly, he rushed at her and took a swipe at her with his dulled letter opener. He would just keep within a closer distance than her spear’s length, making it more difficult to be stabbed. In theory.
It worked in video games, at least, and that was really all the experience he had at the moment.
He felt bad for stepping away from Dering, but if this woman killed the Senshi, what was going to stop her from coming after them next? Besides, Yvoire had a bat and could protect Dering, too. Along with the others.
Kyuseisha no Hikarix
Dering, Amarynthos, Alastor
Sunshine Alouettex
Cynthus, Yvoire
Orangeish Sherbertx
Stirling
genovianprincex
Fang
Aurelius0815x
Atheneite
Posted: Wed May 24, 2023 6:34 am
Sessrumnir, Knight of Jupiter Location: C3 to D2 Action: Trying to help with evacuating everyone as quickly as possible. Suggesting to move away from the bank and pond.
“That’s not Metallia,” Sessrumnir said grimly in response to Yvoire’s question. If only it would be that easy to kill Metallia and end all this. At least until the next source of unlimited Chaos took her place. But he didn’t want to think about that at the moment. He was busy trying to figure out the best escape route after being forced to pause between the burning building and the Negaverse near the pond.
“Down the street,” he gestured. It would take them in front of the building, right where he didn’t want them, but hopefully farther away from where he could sense youma appearing now. And away from a new General King.
“We’ll meet up later, just run. Stay together if you can.”
They seemed to be putting together some kind of plan, which he was grateful for, especially since he and Alastor would likely have to separate from them. At least for a little while.
“Need to get Cybele and the others away from the building,” he quickly told Alastor as he stepped away from him and the kids so he could run towards the bank. Which was on fire. And one of the teens was already rushing a Captain that had attacked a Senshi nearby.
Sessrumnir hissed some curses but it didn’t stop him from making it to where he last saw Cybele, who was with others. One he couldn’t tell if the Neptune Knight (Siegfried) was trying to keep her from rushing into danger, or protect her.
Maybe he didn’t know her that well, but something told him that Cybele wouldn’t appreciate being treated like she couldn’t defend herself and everyone else.
“Let’s go. We’ll regroup later,” he tried calling to those in the area, gesturing them away from the bank, but also away from the General King’s aura. “Grab who you can and go, we don’t have time,” he quickly tried explaining, because he could feel the increase of Chaos in the area.
He was very well aware of how close Aquamarine was to them, and kept an eye on him as he tried getting the others to start moving.
Encke let out a thin laugh as he watched where Faustite was and now where the glowing ball of fire and power landed. A sovereign. A sovereign. Of all the ends to the failed purification due to a Negaverse ambush, he wasn't sure which was worse, but the Negaverse taking Faustite and twisting him into something even more powerful felt like...
Felt like nausea. Felt like loss. Felt like a cut just as deep as the youmaification, but different. He didn't leave. He didn't die. He didn't get overtaken by a youma. The Negaverse just made him into something else.
"He just got entrenched deeper, didn't he?"
But Pendour was right, this wasn't time for that, and the arrival of youma and fire at the bank told that story in itself. Seeing the flames lick reminded him of the Autumn; he and the at the time unpowered Richard spent so much time getting civilians out. This was different, Anser had stressed that the first priority was finding a day where no civilians should be anywhere near the building...
It did not stop him from advancing closer to the fire, telling Pendour with a sense of confidence he tapped into, "I'll be okay if you need to wait back here."
There were a bundle of people fighting near where the flames were licking, and while he saw a general in the mix, the most important part now was getting everyone out even if --
It was hot, hot like the fire that had burned out but apparently returned to swallow Faustite, hot like the fire that destroyed a piece of theatre heritage in Destiny City--
Projecting as if he was on stage, he called to the cluster, "We gotta go! Smoke inhalation by itself can kill!" He had seen it, he was seeing it, he had been part of it, and the dorms themselves at Barren Pines had become nothing more than gutted half-ash--
He stared down the general in particular.
"I'll make you ******** off if you don't yourself."
